Meteor shower with 'fireballs' to peak tonight
The first meteor shower of 2022 is set to peak tonight.
The first meteor shower of the new year is set to peak tonight.
The Quadrantids shower can be seen between December 28 and January 12 and peaks on January 3 and 4.
They are characterised as blue meteors with fine trains and occasional fireballs.
There can be upwards of 120 meteors an hour.
It is one of three showers a year that have a reliably high rate of meteors, but Quadrantids meteors are often fainter than others and seen less often due to the narrow time frame of visibility.
The best view can be seen northeast after midnight and before dawn. Visibility will be helped by the new moon and the set sun.
At non-peak times, there will be fewer meteors over the country, but the ones that do appear will be long-lived and will travel across a wide area of the sky.
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Also this month, Comet 88P/Howell will be visible eastward 90 minutes after sunset.
You will be able to see Comet 141P/Machholz 2 to the south and Comet C/2019 N1 may be seen just south.
A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through debris that has been left behind by comets and asteroids.
